GOOD MORNING – TODAY IS SATURDAY, March 12, the 72nd day day of 2016 with 294 to follow. Sunrise in the Boston area is @ 6:01 and sunset is @ 5:46. The moon is waxing. The morning stars are stars are, Mercury & Venus. The evening stars are Jupiter, Mars, Neptune, Saturn & Uranus.

ON THIS DAY IN: 1496 – Jews were expelled from Syria. 

1609 – The Bermuda Islands became an English colony. 

1664 – New Jersey became a British colony. King Charles II granted land in the New World to his brother James (The Duke of York). 

1755 – In North Arlington, NJ, the steam engine was used for the first time. 

1789 – The U.S. Post Office was established. 

1809 – Britain signed a treaty with Persia forcing the French to leave the country. 

1857 – “Simon Boccanegra” by Verdi debuted in Venice. 

1884 – The State of Mississippi authorized the first state-supported college for women. It was called the Mississippi Industrial Institute and College. 

1863 – President Jefferson Davis delivered his State of the Confederacy address. 

1889 – Almon B. Stowger applied for a patent for his automatic telephone system. 

1894 – Coca-Cola was sold in bottles for the first time. 

1903 – The Czar of Russia issued a decree providing for nominal freedom of religion throughout his territory. 

1905 – In Rome, Premier Giovanni Giolliwas forced out of office by continued civil strife. 

1906 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that corporations must yield incriminating evidence in anti-trust suits. 

1909 – The British Parliament increased naval appropriations for Britain. 

1909 – Three U.S. warships were ordered to Nicaragua to stem the conflict with El Salvador. 

1911 – Dr. Fletcher of Rockefeller Institute discovered the cause of infantile paralysis. 

1912 – The Girl Scout organization was founded. The original name was Girl Guides. 

1923 – Dr. Lee DeForest demonstrated phonofilm. It was his technique for putting sound on motion picture film. 

1930 – Ghandi began his 200-mile march to the sea that symbolized his defiance of British rule over India. 

1933 – President Paul von Hindenburg dropped the flag of the German Republic and ordered that the swastika and empire banner be flown side by side. 

1933 – U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt presented his first presidential address to the nation. It was the first of the “Fireside Chats.” 

1935 – Parimutuel betting became legal in the State of Nebraska. 

1938 – The “Anschluss” took place as German troops entered Austria. 

1940 – Finland surrendered to Russia ending the Russo-Finnish War. 

1944 – Britain barred all travel to Ireland. 

1947 – U.S. President Truman established the “Truman Doctrine” to help Greece and Turkey resist Communism. 

1959 – The U.S. House joined the U.S. Senate in approving the statehood of Hawaii. 

1966 – Bobby Hull, of the Chicago Blackhawks, became the first National Hockey League (NHL) player to score 51 points in a single season. 

1974 – “Wonder Woman” debuted on ABC-TV. The show later went to CBS-TV. 

1984 – Lebanese President Gemayel opened the second meeting in five years calling for the end to nine-years of war. 

1985 – The U.S. and the U.S.S.R. began arms control talks in Geneva. 

1985 – Larry Bird (Boston Celtics) scored a club-record 60 points against the Atlanta Hawks. 

1985 – Former U.S. President Richard M. Nixon announced that he planned to drop Secret Service protection and hire his own bodyguards in an effort to lower the deficit by $3 million. 

1987 – “Les Miserables” opened on Broadway. 

1989 – Prime Minister Sadiq al Mahdi of Sudan formed a new cabinet to end civil war. 

1989 – About 2,500 veterans and supporters marched at the Art Institute of Chicago to demand that officials remove an American flag placed on the floor as part of an exhibit. 

1992 – Mauritius became a republic but remained a member of the British Commonwealth. 

1993 – In the U.S., the Pentagon called for the closure of 31 major military bases. 

1993 – Janet Reno was sworn in as the first female U.S. attorney general. 

1994 – A photo by Marmaduke Wetherell of the Loch Ness monster was confirmed to be a hoax. The photo was taken of a toy submarine with a head and neck attached. 

1994 – The Church of England ordained its first women priests. 

1998 – Astronomers cancelled a warning that a mile-wide asteroid might collide with Earth saying that calculations had been off by 600,000 miles. 

1999 – Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic became members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). All three countries were members of the former Warsaw Pact. 

2002 – U.S. homeland security chief Tom Ridge unveiled a color-coded system for terror warnings. 

2002 – Conoco and Phillips Petroleum stockholders approved a proposed merger worth $15.6 billion. 

2003 – In Utah, Elizabeth Smart was reunited with her family nine months after she was abducted from her home. She had been taken on June 5, 2002, by a drifter that had previously worked at the Smart home. 

2003 – The U.S. Air Force announced that it would resume reconnaissance flights off the coast of North Korea. The flights had stopped on March 2 after an encounter with four armed North Korean jets. 

2009 – It was announced that the Sear Tower in Chicago, IL, would be renamed Willis Tower. 

2010 – In the U.S., Apple began taking pre-orders for the iPad.